Clouds are highly significant in our climate system. But what is the exact role they play? And how is that role changing with rising temperatures? Answering these questions makes a major contribution to understanding the processes underlying climate change. The French climatologist Sandrine Bony investigates the role of clouds in the climate system, and specifically in climate change. For her pioneering work in this field, the Academy is awarding her this year's Buys Ballot Medal for meteorology, in particular climate change.
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Award ceremony, (left) Marileen Dogterom, President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, (right) Maarten van Aalst, Director General and Chief Science Officer of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). Foto's Maarten Nauw
Keynote lecture by Sandrine Bony
- Webinar
Presentation of the Buys Ballot Medal to Sandrine Bony - Dispersing the clouds around climate change
French climate researcher Sandrine Bony will receive this year’s Buys Ballot Medal. She has been awarded this prize in recognition of her pioneering research on the role of clouds in the climate system, and specifically in climate change.
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The influence of clouds is one of the most uncertain factors in our knowledge and understanding of how the climate is changing. How do clouds interact with circulation, how are they changing in a warming climate, and will they mitigate further climate change or in fact make it worse? Sandrine Bony has developed new and innovative analyses to address these questions by combining the results of measurement campaigns, satellite observations, and computer simulations. Her research has greatly increased our knowledge of the interaction between clouds and circulation and reduced uncertainty about the effect of clouds on climate change.
About the winner
Sandrine Bony (born 1968) is a researcher at Sorbonne University in Paris and research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). She is an active member of numerous international panels and working groups, for example as coordinator of the Grand Challenge on Clouds, Circulation and Climate Sensitivity (part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)), and as lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Sandrine Bony will receive the Buys Ballot Medal on 21 November 2023 during a symposium at the Academy in Amsterdam.
The Buys Ballot Medal
The Academy instituted the Buys Ballot Medal in 1888 to honour the scientific achievements of the meteorologist and Academy member C.H.D. Buys Ballot (1817-1890). Since 1893, it has been awarded once every ten years. Starting in 2023, the Medal will be awarded every five years for meteorology research with a particular focus on understanding climate change. The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) contributes substantively and financially to the award of the Buys Ballot Medal.